Tasting Darkness
Tempting Darkness Chapter 13: Kalen POV

Trigger Warning !!! R*pe Content.

The portal closed, and I sighed in relief when I found Aleera was no longer behind me. Tobias g****s on the floor behind me as Darius watches me with a predatory glint in his eyes. I moved around the desk, trying to keep my distance from him.

If he grabbed me before I could touch his aura, I was f*cked. This side of Darius only recognized power. Darius was starving for it and would kill for it if I couldn’t change his aura to recognize me. This was not Darius, and I had not seen him like this in years.

He always made sure to keep this side of him contained. Nothing was more dangerous than the Demonic King. Just like when he killed his father, his father was power–hungry, just like him. Once his mate died, his father would take power however he could. But Demonic Fae could kill and absorb power, yet that required someone to die.

He reminded me of his father when he was like this, a cruel monster. Just like Tobias was a monster when frenzied, so was Darius, without power. It was why Darius killed his father. His father wanted us to claim Aleera, so she could power share.

I knew he wanted to use her so he could retain power also and we got into an argument over it. Aldric lost it; he hadn’t had power in weeks after Darius learned how he was maintaining power and confronted him.

So when I got into an argument with him over Aleera, Lycus jumped in to stop Darius’s father from raping me. Aldric knew how we maintained power and figured if we wouldn’t share Aleera with him, then we were fair game. Lycus was nearly dead by the time Tobias and Darius got here.

I had no memory of it after being knocked out when I called on them. Lycus refused to tell me what happened, and so did the others. All I knew was that I woke up to Aldric dead, and Darius had absorbed his father’s energy and soul.

So seeing Darius like this petrified me. We were all worried about this but figured he would have enough sense to come to one of us and not let it get this far. Darius’s aura was so black it was like looking into oblivion.

It stung as felt for his bond, temporarily blinding me as I looked through the aura that resonated around him, consuming me as I sought out his bond. Darius lunged over the table at me. His sharp – pointed nails reached for my neck when he was tossed sideways. Darius smashed into the wall on his side as a red light blasted past me. I glanced at Tobias to see him sitting up.

His hand was outstretched, b***d running down the side of his head from his temple a drenching his shirt. Darius g*****d, and his skin turned scaled as he growled before rushing at me.

I see Tobias’s hand flick toward him, but I step in his way, making him drop his magic and I grip Darius ‘ head in my hands as his sharp needlepoint nails dig into my shoulder. I stun Darius, numb and mute his aura and him. ”Leave us,” I yell at Tobias. ”Like f*ck I will when he is like that!” Tobias says, spitting b***d on the floor.

Darius, who was stunned under my magic, stared at me as the tendrils of darkness seeped into me, telling me to give in to the darkness and to follow it. Focusing, I manipulated his aura, trying to take some of the darkness out of it, but it was so cold, making me breathe smoke clouds in the air. ”Kalen?” Tobias says, coming up behind me.

I feel his hand touch my lower back, and his worry bleeds into me as the darkness tainting Darius washes into me from his aura. ”I’m fine,” I gasp as Darius‘ grip tightens, his nails breaking my skin through my shirt. ”Twist it.” Tobias growls behind me. ”What?” ”Change the direction of it. Stop trying to take it, I will do it,” Tobias says.

”Tobias, he will hurt you,” ”I don’t care. I won’t have him hurt you. Not like last time,” I was fine,” I retorted. Although he had a point. I couldn’t sit properly for a week, and I was so power drained that I burned out, which knocked me out for two days straight.

”He doesn’t want to hurt me,” I tell Tobias, feeling some part of Darius stuck behind his basal instinct. ”But he does, doesn’t he,” Tobias says.” Tobias, get out!” I tell him. ”Kalen! No!” Tobias snarls at me.

”Get out or f*cking watch! I’ll power him, but I am not letting him hurt you,” I tell Tobias. I was useless at everything else. One thing I could contribute to our bonds was helping them stay in control or dealing with Darius when he was like this. But I knew I had to change his anger to something else, and warm and fuzzy wasn’t Darius.

The only thing stronger than his fury was his l**t. I didn’t mind, and I knew he didn’t mean to hurt me. He would drain me of power, but I am used to not having magic.

Darius used it as punishment over the years; I could live without it. ”F*ck! Then let me knock him out.” Tobias curses, realizing I wasn’t letting him swap places with me. ”And when he wakes up, he will be ten times worse! You know this!” I growl at my mate.

Tobias was more potent than me, but that would make Darius rougher with him. I know Darius fights it with me, but he won’t with Tobias. And then once Tobias was drained of power, we would be dealing with a frenzied Vampiric Fae. Going from one monster to another. Tobias wanders off as I feel through the bond for Darius’, tugging on it and luring it out.

Darius‘ breathing becomes harsher as I use my aura to taint him, turning his hunger for power into l**t. The moment I moved my hands, I was going to be like a puppet in his strings, because I couldn’t fight him and maintain concentration at the same time to hold it over him.

Every time this has happened, I have usually been on my own or with Lycus, and I always block Lycus out. Yet with Aleera, I wasn’t sure I could block her fully now she had marked me. My hands trembled as I let him go, knowing what I was in for, and my eyes glazed over as I tried to maintain the same level of control, contorting and twisting his aura.

Still, at the same time that left me defenseless against him. It blinded me from my surroundings as his aura enveloped me. He had no control, he never did, and neither did I, which left us both at the mercy of his instincts.

This was instinct for him to take, to humiliate, and destroy souls and feast on their pain and magic. That is what the Demonic King does. He could twist your worst nightmare, demolish it and rebuild it into something worse. Take on the persona of the person you feared most.

Blinded suddenly to my surroundings, I heard him growl before the air was knocked out of my lungs. The room fizzles into view momentarily as I drop my magic before I am suddenly blinded as I regain control.

Darius tugs at my clothes, and I feel with my hands to realize I am on my back on the desk. He snarls, the sound sending a chill up my spine so cold I thought it would freeze my heart. Tobias, I could feel he was horrified as Darius shredded my clothes.

He’d never seen Darius like this. I always dealt with him when he was this way after learning firsthand what he was capable of. Therefore, I made sure I forced them out, yet Tobias wasn’t leaving Darius‘ hands to fall on my h!ps before he flips me, making me lose my magic as he slams me on my stomach on the desk, flinging me around like a rag d0ll.

Reaching out, I opened a portal, wanting Tobias to step through it. Yet all he did was shake his head and refused to tear his eyes from us. My magic drops when Darius forces himself inside me, as pain rips through me.

I grip the desk and grit my teeth, instead focusing on his aura and trying to slow him as he thrust into me. I felt like I was tearing in two when I felt him suction on to my magic and draw on it. Once it was gone, I would have not a sliver of control left over him until he was done with me and came back to us.

It sickened me knowing this could have been Aleera if she didn’t get out in time. Tobias growls and I feel my magic fading away with each brutal thrust. Darius g****s behind me and my vision flickers as he drains me of power, the room coming back into view when I see Tobias step into a portal.

It closes, and I sighed with relief, no one wants to witness this. However, moments later, it opens and I whimper as I replace Tobias step through it with Aleera… Tobias’s back was to me and I could see she was crying, making me wonder if I had managed to block her at all.

I would kill him for bringing her in here, only when he moves I see she is blindfolded, her hands outstretched. M My scream is deafening when I feel Darius rip himself from me, feeling her energy burning like a beacon. And I turned, trying to grab him as he rushed at her. ”immobolize agus faigh!”

Tobias says, and he grits his teeth, trying to hold it over Darius, as Darius resists it now writhing with my power. This was stupid of him to bring her here. Lycus steps through the portal behind her and glances at me before his eyes flick away. Lycus grabs her arms, leading her toward him.

”Hurry, Lycus!” Tobias spits as Darius breaks free of his magic and slams against her. They all tumble to the ground and Aleera screams as Darius bites into her neck; he would kill her to get her magic. Lycus is trapped beneath the pair of them when Aleera clamps her hands on his face.

Her hands glow gold as she feeds her magic into him, burning it out. Her eyes glow through the blindfold like a torch was turned on beneath. As the magic fades, Darius rips his teeth from her neck. B***d ran down his chin and Aleera’s arms fall at her sides as her body goes slack. I see Darius ‘ aura flicker as his conscious mind returns. Meanwhile, Aleera’s magic was burned out completely. He drained her entirely, not leaving even a speck of power.

Lycus was breathing heavily and Aleera’s head rolled to the side of his chest. When Darius came too.

The air fizzled around him, hazed like a veil was lifted. He panted, trying to catch his breath before his breath halts completely. His eyes peered down at her before realizing he was n*ked.

His head whips to the side to look at us in horror. Tobias stood in shock. Lycus was just staring vacantly at the ceiling clutching her body when Darius‘ eyes fall on Aleera pinned beneath him, her clothes all torn from their earlier struggles. He makes a strange noise in the back of his throat.

“Did I…?” he says, horrified, looking down at her.

R*pe her? No! Just Kalen!” Lycus snarls at him.